Finally we have the wo-man, which are male characters with breasts. Nicole Murphy mentions this in her post. The wo-man is written exactly as a man with all his interests, attributes, entanglements and characteristics except he/she has sex with male characters. Interesting. Starbuck, in BSG, the gods love her, is a good example. Wo-man to the soul. Is she a strong female character? Not really. The subtext here is, to be strong you have to be a man.

It seems our society lacks the language and conceptual insights, given the patriarchal inheritance, to write strong autonomous women without props.

I believe that writing strong women is all about writing diverse and true-to-life characters. So long as an author is focused on that, and on observing the nuance of human behaviour and avoiding cliché and stereotype, then I believe she or he will write great characters, some of whom may be strong and inspirational women and men. Others again may be weak, fearful, dishonest, vindictive, petty or self-serving—because that, too, is part of the gamut of human experience.

I do look forward to seeing more and different types of strong female characters. They should reflect the women we know in our real lives- their personalities should be as diverse as all of them. I think there is still plenty of room to develop. Though I confess, a woman with a sword is still one of my favourites!

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